


Positions

by Asymptotical



Series: Fandom: Mass Effect [3]
Category: Mass Effect: Andromeda
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/F, Jien Garson Lives, Pathfinder Ellen Ryder
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-03
Updated: 2020-12-07
Packaged: 2021-03-10 03:34:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 12,436
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27858397
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Asymptotical/pseuds/Asymptotical
Summary: The Initiative arrives in Andromeda ten years early, running into a Scourge that's positioned just slightly differently.It changes everything.
Relationships: Jien Garson & Ellen Ryder, Jien Garson/Sloane Kelly
Series: Fandom: Mass Effect [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2132883
Comments: 3
Kudos: 5
Collections: Heart Attack Exchange 2020





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ziskandra](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ziskandra/gifts).



> There's two canon divergences in this:  
> 1) The Initiative arriving to the Heleus Cluster a little bit earlier and hitting the Scourge differently (with different effects)  
> 2) The Ryders collectively being about ten years younger comparatively to their canon selves. Except for SAM, who is about the same.

Jien was expecting to wake up to cheerful tension--a whole new galaxy at their fingertips and a massive crew just waiting to wake up and start colonizing it--not silence. 

She had wanted to wake up first, had argued for it extensively, but she ultimately had been overruled since the automated wakeups were, well, automatic. If anything went wrong no one would be there to manually override the process. 

Instead her wakeup from cyro was supposed to be a whole big thing, with the initial skeleton crew getting basic setup done and then pulling her out as the first of the leadership team. They were going to record it. She had been quietly dreading her inevitable bedhead being immortalized as a pivotal first moment of their stay in Andromeda. 

The only reason she was supposed to wake up from the automated system was-- 

Something crackled in the distance. 

Jien instantly found herself preferring the silence, the sound startling her more fully aware as the haze from hundreds of years in cyrosleep cleared. 

The only reason she was supposed to have the automated wakeup kick in was if there was an emergency. She had insisted on the caveat to ensure that the station wasn't left leaderless in an unexpected situation. 

Her immediate instinct was to log into her holoprojections--she had enough of them around the ship--and just communicate with everyone that way. The whole point of them was so she could do exactly that. 

It would have worked great if she could actually access them. Or any sort of communication. She even attempted email, but there was one message waiting for her that recontextualized everything. 

The Benefactor wanted her to meet with one of their people immediately, in one of the panic rooms hidden in the back areas of the ship. The message was from before they left, after she'd been placed into cyro, but she knew there was at least one person on the skeleton crew that she'd identified as connected. They would easily be able to slip away to meet with her. 

Not that she would go. She wasn't an idiot. 

Jien shoved off the platform that her cyropod had unfolded around, stumbling slightly as she tried to get her balance a bit earlier than she probably should have been getting up. The sound echoed in the silent room. 

For the brisk walk it took her to get to the tram, she was convinced that this was all the Benefactor's doing. She had no idea how many people they had onboard, so changing the automated wakeup sequences should be possible. In theory she and the Benefactor's people might be the only ones awake. They might not even be in Andromeda yet. 

But when she got to the tram… 

Well, there was the crackling sound. Jien wasn't dumb enough to try to get closer to see exactly _what_ was wrong, but even if the tram was functional it would be too much of a risk to try it. 

What the fuck was going on? It would make any sense for the Benefactor to wake her up only to block her from getting to their people--nor for them to set her up to die in a suspicious way out in the open when they were trying to get her somewhere hidden--so that put her back onto emergency. 

… 

The automation wouldn't have woken her up for a broken tram. 

She needed to get somewhere with access to the rest of the station--easier said than done--to see what was going on, where, and get there to...help? Be inspiring? She'd figure it out. If she could access her holoprojectors then that would let her do both. 

For the first time she wished that she had taken Alec up on his offer of making her a SAM. Jien had turned him down immediately when he offered. The Pathfinders all having an AI in their heads was risky enough, and they were incredibly lucky that all four had been enthusiastic about it instead of horrified. If the Citadel had found out about those four SAMs, it would have been bad enough. If she had accepted and there had been even rumors about her having an AI, benign or not, the whole Initiative would have been dead in the water. 

And, well, there had been other things to worry about with the AI. It was best that she'd kept it at arm's length as much as possible. 

But if she hadn't turned Alec down, Jien would have known what was going on now. She would have known, she would have had access, she would have the best path, she would be able to actually _help_ with whatever frantic repairs had to be happening elsewhere in the station. She would have a built in ally if this did turn out to be her deal with the Benefactor coming back to kill her. 

Instead she just-- 

She needed to stop saying 'what if' and figure out her next step. 

Jien did a quick calculation in her head, then headed towards one of the maintenance shafts. It should connect to the common area--assuming it hadn't been damaged by whatever had hit the tram--and she had a computer there. Not only that, but if it turned out she was being herded in that direction she had a safe room that should have been left off the station schematics completely. In theory she'd be safe there for a few days. 

* * *

Going through the maintenance tunnels was harrowing. Jien assumed they usually had gravity, which meant the ever present fear of them losing _air_ followed her as she floated her way through them and didn't leave until she stumbled out into the common area. 

It was just as silent as the admin cyro bay had been, with the headache inducing addition of flashing warning lights. At least nothing seemed broken here. 

Her personal terminal, thankfully, lit up as soon as she touched it. Her holoprojections were available, she could-- 

Before she did that, before she got wrapped up in whatever was going on, she needed to check on the Benefactor's person. If they had just woken up then she could focus on the emergency and deal with them later, probably. The smartest move would probably be to ping them to ascertain exactly what they were doing, and if their reply was suspicious she could isolate herself until it was possible to have security come to her. In theory they should have no idea where she was until she told someone. 

If they had been awake for awhile, then she'd have to assume that they were the reason for the emergency and act accordingly. 

Her terminal had that whole cyro section lit up in red. Sudden system failure, with the diagnostic equipment also showing red so there was nothing she could find out from here to figure out what had caused it. 

She pinged the person in the Benefactor's designated cyro pod directly. Nothing. 

"Fuck," she muttered. That was...that was a big bay. That was almost everyone in the skeleton crew that wasn't in engineering or maintenance. 

The Initiative would be able to survive it, mercenary as that was to think. No two essential personnel were in the same bay and everyone had been spread out to slowly build up all the sections as they had the resources to do so. It was more organized, and doing it by bays made it easier for someone to glance back and know exactly how far back their family members or friends were from being pulled out of cyro. 

She checked, quickly. A few other bays were down. The engineering section seemed to be going through some sort of flicking malfunction with all clear readings one second and then energy surges the next. 

Her holoprojects were mostly fine. A few were down, likely taken out by whatever energy was causing all the issues, but since they each had an independent power source (easier to keep them secret that way) they weren't being hit by the fluctuations. 

Jien took a deep breath, stepped back for the holoprojector to read her completely, then connected in with one near what seemed to be the worst of the malfunctions. As her contacts connected and her vision swapped to the holoprojection's, she could see the startled looks on the faces of the crewmates nearby. 

"Focus on the emergency," she told them calmly. "Do you need backup?" 

"We--" the technician looked helplessly at the power bay. "We think we have this. The whole place is going haywire." 

"We got it isolated to this section but, ma'am, it's the whole engineering section." 

"Don't let me distract you. I'm going to connect in with everyone I can; let me know if you need more resources so we can get this under control as quickly as possible." 

She left that holoprojection in standby mode and flicked to the next, and the next. On the fourth, she found Captain Kelly. 

Sloane was clearly both expecting her by now--probably told by someone that there was a hologram of the Director popping up all over the place--and furious. "Director! Where are you?" 

"Crew quarters." 

"Is that--" Sloane muted her comms for a moment, the hum of background noise cutting off, and then came back, "--Stay where you are! That area should be safe." 

"I was planning on it. I can 'move' faster this way." 

"We're going to have a talk about that later, none of those holos were on my security grid." Sloane said darkly, before shaking herself out of it. "The whole engineering section is waking up sporadically and we keep throwing them into motion as they show up. Bays are down, several places may or may not have air or gravity--" 

Jien nodded. "Link me to your team's comms. I can help coordinate, if nothing else. I'm not sitting and waiting while my station burns." 

"Most of it isn't on fire yet," Sloane said dryly, before obediently linking her through. 

* * *

There were a lot of lists that Jien had been prepared to deal with when they reached Andromeda. She had spent as much time as she could spare--what little that was--trying to prepare for all the scientific data that she knew would be going across her desk. She had experts for a reason, but that only helped if she actually understood what they were saying. 

She hadn't prepared for this. 

Jien closed her eyes, sighed, and switched away from the list of names. "The other bays are safe?" 

"So far," Sloane's voice was clear over the comms. Jien would have preferred if they were crackling, some sign of the mechanical failure that should have been affecting everything. The engineering section being the one to start waking up had been a stroke of luck. There were...far more of them awake than would have been ideal for their plan, but it meant that essential systems were getting fixed very rapidly. Verifying that they had isolated that section to make sure that no one _else_ woke up out of turn would take time, but it was far more doable than a station-wide disturbance would have been. "Lucky that more of them weren't hit with the surge engineering got." 

Jien had spent a lot of time learning to read between the lines on what her top people meant when they said things, so that she'd know when it was important. 

Sloane was saying that they were lucky that the unidentified hostile energy had hit the cyro bays the way it had. Several hundred instantaneous deaths traded for who knew how many in the chaos that would have come if the whole station had been compromised. 

It still didn't feel good to start their new lives in Andromeda like this, better option or not. 

* * *

The flurry of meetings that her life became over the next several days was a nice note of normalcy...even if the actual people attending those meetings weren't exactly the admin that she had prepared to be working closely with. For the most part it was just herself, Nakmor Kesh, and Sloane Kelly. She was familiar with both women--she had picked Sloane herself and Kesh had been proven herself invaluable as a Superintendent already--but their lines of work didn't involve much direct day to day interaction. There had always been layers of admin between them, with occasional meetings entirely based on their specific jobs. 

They were now, somewhat reluctantly, the rest of her leadership team. They were both the sort of women who preferred to focus on their actual work, even if Kesh was very well aware of her role representing her clan here and tried to live up to that, which meant that they weren't really the sort of people who were comfortable sitting around in meetings deciding the fate of thousands. 

Too bad. Jien had frozen all authorizations to pull people from cyro, which meant that for the time being their crew was a handful of essential personnel, the people Sloane had pulled from cyro, and a whole lot of engineers and technicians. The outward excuse was that they already had more people awake than was ideal at this level of resources, with the risk of more if engineering continued fluctuating. The actual reason was that she was fairly sure none of the Benefactor's people were awake before Jien had everything set and moving with security fast at hand if something did go wrong. Preferably, she didn't want them awake until the Pathfinders were here. 

She just had to stall for six months. 

No one had any arguments with the outward excuse, so it was looking more and more likely that she would manage it. 

"If we reroute some power we can start moving the remaining engineering cyropods onto the backup systems," Kesh said, tapping at the table. "We have a crew looking into it. It's not meant for that many pods but it's an option. If we reroute one of the backup generators to it and assign some people to monitor it will be as safe as we can make it" 

"We have enough of your people awake to spare for that," Jien agreed. "More than. Were you able to get any volunteers to transfer to other positions temporarily?" 

Kesh nodded. "Some of the supervisors should be willing to switch over. They're rearranging teams, we just need to decide what they need." 

"We need to decide who we need to wake up." Sloane pointed out. "Food, the next step, we need a plan." 

"We need hydroponics up and running, just enough to feed our final crew count once our stores run out if things are bad out there. We can scale up from there as we need." Jien glanced at Sloane out of the corner of her eye. "And we need a recon team. See what you can do with the people we already have awake." 

"Fuck." Sloane sighed. "We need a Pathfinder. That's going to leave you short on security." 

"As long as everyone stays calm we shouldn't need security. We need as small of a crew as possible while we determine if the system is habitable." It was tempting to let Sloane wake up whoever she wanted, but that would send a bad message to the rest of the crew. 

"And if it isn't?" 

"Then we go to plan B," Jien answered calmly, as though that was an easy thing to do and not a plan that they had all been nervous about even working. The ships were designed for one trip, not two. "This was the best system we identified, but not the only habitable system." 

"And if the next one one is just as fucked?" 

Jien frowned at Sloane, who looked entirely unrepentant. Of course that was assuming the captain even realized what Jien's problem was. Usually Jien's meetings involved significantly less cursing. "Then we reassess. We'll need time after each trip to refuel and restock food stores." 

"I need to figure out who has any recon training." Sloane sighed. "Don't suppose you have a fancy AI sitting around to help sort through this stuff? Most of what I need isn't going to be listed for the security team, just implied. I might just ask for volunteers. Tell me you're waking up some geologists." 

"I have a list of scientists to wake up as we need them," Jien reassured. "And I thought you weren't a fan of SAM." 

"I'm _not_ but enough shit is going wrong, why not toss an AI into it?" 

"We don't have one on board." She didn't mention her fleeting impulse to take Alec up on the offer of one, once the Hyperion showed up and he actually had time. For all she knew he had an extra ten hidden in his rooms. It would...it really would not be out of character. Jien was fond of Alec but he had a habit of having ten projects going where she expected five. "We'll need to do things the old fashioned way, unless someone who's awake has some automation that would work." 

"We probably have a VI that can narrow it down," Kesh said, sounding amused. "We have plenty of interviews to analyze." 

"Or I can do it the fast way and just ask for volunteers. If I don't get enough volunteers, I'll get some voluntolds." Sloane waved a hand. "This is a step up sort of situation." 

"I'd like you to head up the recon." 

Sloane gave her a sharp glance. "That leaves you without a security head." 

"I'm more worried about recon not having a field commander. You said it yourself, we need a Pathfinder." 

"And you want me to go out and play at it." 

"We need to keep things as normal as possible. Your people trust you, if you're out there, they'll go." 

"You are very much underestimating the number of people who will need to be voluntold." 

* * *

Sloane got her volunteers and then some (Jien wasn't surprised, these were colonists after all). Jien got just enough volunteers from the engineering and maintenance staff to fill essential spots in admin. She ignored the impulse to wake people up except when necessary. Did she _want_ Addision's support? Absolutely. Would it make sense? No, not until they were ready for colonization efforts. At the end of it they had a couple hundred people awake--more than she would like, with so much uncertainty, but a decent skeleton crew if they shuffled people around some. 

It became very rapidly clear that they weren't going to be doing any colonization anytime soon. 

"In what I'm sure is a complete surprise," Sloane drawled over the comms, "Habitat Seven is also fucked. Less fucked than Habitat One, but still not exactly a golden world." 

Actually finding just those two had proven difficult. The dark energy--the were calling the Scourge--had thrown off all their navigation enough that the planets couldn't be located like they had expected, which meant guesswork and legwork ruled the day. Sloane had found Habitat one almost by chance. It had been an incredibly upbeat day until the captain had landed, determined that it was theoretically habitable if they were insane and wanted the initiative to slowly die of radiation poisoning, and set off again. "Is it possible to do any ground recon?" Maybe Habitat 7 would fare better. 

"We can get down there, not sure if we can get back up." 

"That's a no then." Jien sighed. 

"Are we going to keep looking, or are we swapping to plan B." 

"Both. I'll leave it up to your judgement which option you want to personally persue." 

"I want to get my ass back onto the Nexus, is what I want to do." 

Jien let a small smile peek out. "I'm not expecting you to be out there permanently." 

"You know what I meant." Sloane sighed. "I'll be back tomorrow, split up my teams a bit. Get Kandros to give me an actual report on who is acting up--don't say everything is fine, someone is always acting up." 

"Everyone is behaving reasonably considering the situation. Kandros has been keeping me updated." It was somewhat comforting, to have half of the people that were in charge of things people she had personally chosen. She trusted Kandros almost as much as she trusted Sloane. 

"You're on comm support for recon." Sloane pointed out. "The fuck is he keeping you updated about, your own calls?" 

"I'm _debriefing_ you." 

Sloane laughed and hung up. 

It was, technically, true that usually Jien would get this sort of thing as a paper report, nice and neat with any sarcasm or cursing carefully removed via succinct summaries. 'Recon team surveilled Habitat 7, determined landing not feasible for...some sort of scientific reasoning' it would say, followed by a lot of lists and details summarizing the actual data that was passed on to the science teams. 

Instead she just got told it was 'fucked'. 

Presumably there was a report, probably delivered directly to their very overworked experts. 

Jien tapped her pen on the table a few times, then sighed and pushed away from the desk. If they were going with plan B, then everyone needed to know. She'd wait until Sloane was back. Actually--she reached over and called Sloane back. 

"Missed me already?" 

"Pull all your people back, if we're planning on leaving they need to hear it from me personally." 

"They really do not." 

"They do." 

"They can--" 

"Sloane," she interrupted. "I know people. It's a morale thing. They need to hear it from me, said calmly and directly. You're worried about security? The biggest threats to security are people who feel trapped in a helpless situation." 

"Fine." 

* * *

She was expecting some push back, but everyone seemed somewhat relieved when she introduced plan B. Jien talked for a few minutes about what they knew about that system (without the glowing golden world terminology, no one was going to trust that this time), and explained that while they'd still be sending recon teams to find the remaining golden worlds they'd be focusing on refueling and restocking for a secondary journey. Building out the Nexus wasn't going to happen; when the arks arrived, instead of a thriving station they'd find a ship ready for takeoff. 

Given that their only colonization option in this system so far was a giant radiation bath, everyone probably assumed that the next system couldn't be _worse_. 

Mining meant that they needed specialized crews pulled from cyro--she could replace admin with extras from engineering, but she wasn't going to risk that with something potentially dangerous--which meant they needed extra food supplies set up. After a mostly feigned argument with Sloane she also let a few more security personnel be pulled out. With luck everyone would assume they were just continuing to use the security teams for initial recon. Which...they were. But it was also good to have a lot of people loyal to Sloane up just in case. 

The volunteer recon teams seemed enthusiastic about finding helium-3 deposits, at least. Given how much the Initiative needed it would likely be years before they were ready to take off again, especially if they were only able to find asteroids to mine, but it was a solid and obtainable end point that everyone could work for. 

It also gave plenty of time for the arks to arrive, which was understandably a concern. 

They were about four months out. Just four months. Then she'd have Pathfinders to help with all of this. 

* * *

A year later, the arks still hadn't arrived. 

* * *

The longer they went without the arks showing up, the higher the tension grew. Yes, they were managing to fulfill their food needs and slowly amassing stores of helium-3 bit by bit, but at this rate it was clear that it would take several times the expected years just to find what they needed much less to mine it, which meant formerly high expectations for the plan were waning, which meant people slowly starting to panic. The continued issues with the engineering cyro bay didn't help. Not only was having that many pods on a backup a major power drain, but they wouldn't be able to launch without those pods properly and safely placed. 

And everyone knew it. 

They trusted Jien, but she knew full well that trust would only go so far in the face of increasingly looming hopelessness. 

Sloane took to letting Kaetus and Kandros take the lead on recon and spent a good amount of time lingering menacingly around Jien's office. She tried to project calm about the situation, even teasing Sloane about it occasionally. If people thought that she was worried about an attack, they would get tense, which would increase the odds of that attack actually happening. 

Not that Jien was expecting one. Everyone had a breaking point, but they weren't there yet. There was frustration, but she couldn't imagine anyone being murderous, not yet at least. 

* * *

She was wrong. 

In her defense, in normal situations it shouldn't have happened. 

"A chemical anomaly," she repeated, frowning at the documentation that the doctors had sent her two days after someone had snapped and tried to rush her office. 

"It looks like there are some side effects of cyrosleep that we weren't prepared for." 

"That doesn't bode well for a second trip." 

"If we solve it now it'll be fine." the medical officer said, all confidence outwardly even though Jien could catch the note of uncertainty. "We think--well, we have a few people who have dealt with this sort of thing before who we could pull from cyro, and more once the arks arrive. Now that we can identify it we'll focus on mitigation and curing it." 

"If you tell the crew what's going on with this, you'll have a small riot on your hands." Sloane said once the medical team had cleared out. 

Jien sighed. "I doubt it'll be that bad. Run everyone through medical and psychiatric checks again. We need to check for anxiety and other issues anyways, given this incident." 

She ignored the knowing look that Sloane gave her at the clear subtext of 'don't tell them we're checking to make sure cyrosleep hasn't driven them insane'. 

* * *

It turned out that doing paperwork with Sloane was… 

Well it wasn't comfortable. 

Distracting? 

That was certainly the word. 

"You don't need to be in here." Jien pointed out. "I want to stay accessible." 

"Yeah I bet you do," Sloane growled. "Someone already tried to break in and I'm not ready to trust that more aren't going to snap. You can go back to that when the arks show up." 

Jien sighed. "The more we clamp down the more people will panic." 

"It's a few hundred people. We can deal with that. We can also take precautions to make sure you stay safe." 

"I--" 

"If someone takes you out all hell is going to break loose." 

Jien raised an eyebrow. "I'm not the most essential cog to this machine, especially not now." 

Sloane laughed, pushing up from her chair. "Of course you are." She looped around the desk, looking over Jien's shoulder. "Pretty sure you're doing half of the essential admin right now." 

"I have people for that." 

"Good thing. Imagine how much of a mess you'd be if you didn't delegate. You're still doing more than you would if we'd showed up to no Scourge and a bunch of golden worlds." 

Jien glanced up, frowning directly at Sloane. 

It was...a weird angle. Strangely uncomfortable considering how close they were right now. 

Sloane noticed, because she always seemed to notice the undercurrent of things, and smirked. 

It was incredibly annoying. 

* * *

They identified about a dozen more people whose mental states had been similarly affected by the time in cyro and promptly put them right back into cyro. 

It wasn't Jien's favorite solution, but it was...it was a solution. Or something. It was a place where people could be put aside without much fuss. Their behavior had been obvious to people around them and given the situation it had been easy enough to explain away as stress induced. It had been over a year by now, more than the recommended time before it was possible to safely re-enter cyrosleep, so without the additional context of their condition being _caused_ by cyrosleep… 

It was probable that people would be upset if (when) they found out, but they couldn't risk leaving them awake. With luck, they would find a solution soon. 

* * *

"We've stablized the engineering cyrobay." Kesh told her unceremoniously. "One month so far with no fluctuations and constant monitoring. We should be able to start transferring those pods back into permanent bays soon." 

It was a nice bit of relief. They needed to do that, to be able to fly, and having it...it was something to distract people with. 

"Sounds like everyone deserves a bit of time off to celebrate," Jien suggested. 

It _was_ a big deal, so why not make a big deal out of it? 

Kesh laughed. "Not all at once, but I'll work something out. Some reminders that we are hitting milestones will do everyone good." 

* * *

Jien spent the day congratulating the engineering team, "briefing" the reset of them on what changes to their own sections they'd be seeing as a result of the lower energy consumption and extra available backup system, and let everyone take some time off. There wasn't an official party, but they would still happen. 

Jien hadn't been planning on joining any of the parties, but she was warned against it by Sloane anyways. 

"My plans included a drink at home and a nap," she told the captain. Then, before she could think better of it, she smiled up at Sloane. "You're welcome to join me." 

* * *

Jien pulled up her own most recent psyche profile after that, just to make sure. 

It said she was totally fine. 

She hacked into her medical records. Also fine. Titers looked good, chemical balances looked good, screenings were good. 

Which meant that the only thing she had to blame for inviting Sloane Kelly over for drinks was herself. 

After much deliberation, all of which took place standing in front of her closet, she decided to just go with it. She picked out a nice dress--nothing too fancy but certainly something she'd only wear to an event or a date--did up her makeup for the first time since launch, and waited for Sloane to arrive. 

If the captain _didn't_ show, then at least Jien would look fantastic while drinking wine in her apartment. 

* * *

Sloane showed. 

She was still wearing her normal uniform. Jien considered asking her if Sloane actually had anything else...before determining that she must. Jien had seen her in a variety of outfits before hiring her, or even when she was off duty back in their original galaxy. Sloane was just...trying to exude that 'don't fuck with me' aura that was she was so attached to. 

The captain raised an eyebrow when she saw Jien, who had seated herself near her window in her fancy dress, with a glass of wine in her hand and another on the little table besides her. None of the apartments on the Nexus were very large--they were meant to be temporary after all, with expansions happening later as the whole station was built out--but Jien had always been good at making the best of an impression no matter the space she had to work with. 

It did have the best view on the nexus though. Perk of being in charge. 

"Nice view," Sloane said, almost as if on cue, even though she was only looking at Jien. 

Jien waved a hand at the table. "There's wine if you want it." 

"I'm usually more of a beer person," Sloane said, slipping into the seat and picking up the glass anyways. 

"That is...entirely the stereotype that you exude." Jien sipped at her wine, eyeing Sloane appraisingly. 

They both drank their wine, silently, both pretending like they weren't eyeing each other up. 

Jien finally broke the silence, "I honestly don't know what sort of topics to bring up with you other than work." 

"Do you _do_ anything other than work?" Sloane asked. 

"Do you?" 

"Kaetus and I play cards on the regular, sometimes we drag the rest of that lot into it. Occasionally drinking games." Sloane downed the rest of her glass of wine. 

Jien raised an eyebrow. "Well if you'd rather be out celebrating with your crew--" 

"They're working. We'll have some celebrations tomorrow when engineering isn't entirely drunk. I think some of them are actually looking forward to a good old fashioned drunk tank." Sloane rolled her eyes. "Even if they weren't, letting them have some time to let loose without the boss breathing down their necks is generally a good thing. This whole system seems so empty and broken that it's getting to them, they need a night to let loose." 

"Empty and broken." Jien frowned. "That does describe it well." 

"Don't get morose on me." Sloane sighed. "You're one of those types of drinkers aren't you." 

Jien rolled her eyes. "I've had _one drink_ , Captain Kelly." 

"So you're a tee-totaler." 

Jien delicately set her half empty glass back on the table. "It is possible to be introspective without being drunk." 

"You are like that." Sloane poured herself another glass of wine, drinking this one more slowly. "So, _do_ you ever have fun." 

Jien considered her pile of things to do. "I find it fulfilling to get things accomplished. It's a sort of fun, working towards a goal of that scale." 

"Uh huh." Sloaned eyed her. "So did you get all dressed up just because you felt like it or should I read something into that." 

"It's been awhile since I had a good excuse to get dressed up." Jien answered. 

Sloane looked disappointed for half a moment, before she hid it by taking another sip of wine. 

"But," Jien continued recklessly, "if you did want to read more into it I wouldn't complain." 

Sloane gave her a long slow look over the glass. "You know, for someone who constantly surrounds herself with straight shooters you sure are incapable of it yourself." 

Jien smiled. "That seems like a very good motivation for surrounding myself with them, then. Have you considered that it wouldn't be at all proper for someone to make a move on a subordinate of theirs?" 

"Is it appropriate for the subordinate to make a move on their boss then?" 

"That depends on the situation, Captain Kelly." Jien smiled slightly, almost tempted to take another sip of her wine but resisting as Sloane stood, smirking down at her. 

Sloane took a couple steps, reaching out to gently run her calloused fingers under Jien's chin. "What if the situation is that I want to mess up that fancy dress of yours?" 

Jien's eyes narrowed, but she didn't pull away from Sloane's touch. "Do _not_ rip my dress. We don't have a supply line for high end textiles here, and likely won't for a while. I didn't bring my entire closet." 

Sloane laughed. "I was thinking more rumpling than ripping. That thing is barely hanging onto you as it is, shouldn't be too easy to get it off without tearing anything. Or maybe just shove that skirt up and pull that top down and--" 

"That's acceptable." Jien interrupted, keeping her expression serene. 

Sloane rolled her eyes, then leaned down to kiss her. 

Jien tilted her head up into it, letting a little sound slip out. It had...it had been awhile. 

For all that she seemed to talk bawdy, Sloane didn't follow it up with actions. Instead she just pulled Jien to her feet, wrapping an arm around her waist and deepening the kiss into something a lot more carnal, her other hand slipping up to the back of Jien's neck. Jien let her weight fall onto the embrace, tilting her head up to the kiss and reveling in it as Sloane slowly moved them back towards the bed. 

Jien half expected Sloane to push her onto the bed, but instead they stopped and the other woman stepped back, waving at the bed. "Ladies first." 

Jien rolled her eyes and walked around the side of the bed to climb onto it near her pillows. 

Sloane kept standing there, just...watching. Drinking it in? Jien wasn't sure what the security chief was doing but whatever it was, she wasn't doing it fast. 

Jien reached behind her neck and undid the clasp holding the halter top of her dress up, letting it fall to her waist. It _really_ was not the sort of dress that was complicated to get out of. 

She hadn't picked it for that reason (she hadn't!) but it was convenient when she needed to make a point. 

Sloane made a pleased little sound. 

"Are you just going to look or are you going to do something about it?" Jien asked, before narrowing her eyes. "You should get your boots off." 

"I should." Sloane agreed, then _turned away_ from Jien to start taking them off. 

Jien resisted the urge to make an annoyed sound. She was pretty sure if she did, that would mean she lost. Not that it was a competition, but, well, anything with Sloane was a very specific brand of fraught. 

It was a little bit odd, watching someone strip from behind, like she was intruding even though Sloane was in Jien's room sitting on Jien's bed. After Sloane ditched her boots she pulled off her jacket, then her shirt, sending both unceremoniously onto the floor. 

Jien probably should have used the time to take off her heels and the rest of her dress. 

Instead, she reached out a hand to trace a finger lightly over one of the scars on Sloane's back. 

Sloane shivered a little, then turned around all of a sudden with an almost hungry look on her face, grabbing Jien's wrist firmly, if gently and bearing her back into the pillows. 

Jien was more than happy to let herself fall back, smirking up at the captain. 

Sloane gave her an exasperated look for a moment before kissing her again, pinning her wrist to the pillow with one hand and running her other hand up under Jien's skirt. 

She didn't rip the dress. 

She did end up snapping some stitches on Jien's panties, but by that point Jien was gone enough that she was willing to forgive it. 


	2. Chapter 2

Weirdly, sleeping with her security chief made things _less_ awkward in the office. 

For them, at least, it was probably more awkward for the poor engineer turned admin who almost walked in on them when Jien had Sloane up on the desk and--well--she wasn't behaving in a way that was strictly appropriate for a workplace. 

* * *

Jien wasn't sure if it was the engineering bay being fixed--which meant their only limitations on leaving were fuel and the arks' continued absence--or the removal of those negatively affected by the cyrosleep from the population, but everyone seemed calmer now. More professional, more focused on their jobs. Things settled enough that Sloane was willing to go out again, which Jien felt safe using as a litmus for how tense the general crew actually was. 

Jien was starting to worry less about the Benefactor's people, as well. It had been over a year with nothing from them. If they were awake, they were biding their time. 

The recon teams seemed to find things faster with Sloane out in the field, and Jien did her best to avoid acting smug about it. Things seemed to work out like that, a lot of the time. It was the reason she'd put so much emphasis on Pathfinders. 

She still wasn't ready for the next surprise this system had to drop onto them. 

"You want the good news or the bad news." Sloane asked over the comms, voice tense. 

"Good news is faster to deal with." Jien leaned forward, frowning and trying to guess at the bad news. Whatever it was couldn't be too urgent or Sloane would be telling her, but it had to be _something_ bad for Sloane to get that tone about it. 

"Well the good news is sort of bad news all wrapped up in a mess. Engineers had some new ideas about using Habitat One as bearings to find the other Habitats and it looks like that'll work." 

"That is good." 

"But remember how I called it empty?" Sloane asked. "I was fucking wrong. Got some xenotech here." 

Jien went very still. "You what?" 

"Found xenotech." 

"Are you sure?" 

"Unless the ground is growing VI and mechanical towers, yeah, we're sure." 

"This whole system should be completely uninhabited. We were sure of it. It hasn't been that long since our scans." 

"Yeah, well, it was supposed to not be full of Scourge either and look how that worked out." 

* * *

Jien wasn't sure if she was disappointed or relieved when it turned out that there weren't any signs of recent life around the alien technology, at least not around the pillar Sloane's people found. They would need to pull some experts out to study it...and at this point it just wasn't a priority. Looking over the personnel she could see a few promising people with a background in xenotechnology, most of them having experience in prothean artifacts and very very few of them having any experience with potential AI (which she had to consider, based on the VI guarding the pillar), so they would have options if they decided to investigate it. 

"We're just going to leave the tower alone then?" Sloane asked. 

The question was phrased like it should have been confrontational, but Jien was fairly sure there was a note of approval there. 

"I don't want to open any doors we can't close." 

"Good, we have enough problems without buying more. Half the time you seem to act like you're at the problem store and they're buy one get one free for extra large issues." 

"You're sleeping with those extra large issues." 

"Your tits are lovely and not the issues I was talking about," Sloane snarked, earning herself a glare. 

* * *

They kept the xenotech quiet, limited to discussions between her, Sloane, and Kesh. They couldn't come up with a consensus on what to do about it, especially since they hadn't yet actually seen any sign of who had created it in the first place. The when was easy enough to figure out, it had been created not long after they had scanned the system. 

It was terrible luck, really If they had known the system had a chance of being inhabited they would have picked another one. They couldn't rescan the one that they were going to jump to after this, it wasn't possible from here, so they'd have to just hope that system was both free of Scourge _and_ uninhabited, both of which it could possibly be if the state of this system was part of a large scale colonization effort that went very badly. 

It wasn't promising. 

* * *

When the Hyperion finally showed up, it caught everyone by surprise. They had, sometime in the last six months, stopped expecting them anytime soon. It was a tense undercurrent mostly covered up with focus on mining as much helium-3 as they could. If the arks hadn't shown by the time they finished mining… 

But that seemed unlikely, with how slow the mining was going. Everyone just insisted (out loud at least) that surely there would be enough time. 

And now it was a moot point, because the Hyperion was _here_. 

"Tell Alec that it's not cute to be late." Sloane snapped, back fully into stressed mode as everyone launched into a frenzy that the station hadn't seen for a while. 

It wasn't Alec who answered their comms, though. 

It was Ellen. 

* * *

Ellen Ryder hadn't been intending on taking over any Alec's duties. That had been firmly in Cora's court if it had ever happened. 

She, really, had assumed that if anyone was to have any issues with cyro, it would be her. They had loaded her up with five million (not quite but it felt like it) warnings before she'd gone into the Cyropod that Alec had specially programmed so that SAM would control every step of her wakeup process to minimize any abnormalities that AEND might introduce. Alec had planned to be there to watch over the process himself just in case, because of course he had, but being as paranoid as ever he had insisted on setting up a backup so SAM could fully control the process if needed. Her pod wasn't even connected into the greater system; just SAM. 

In the end, it had been a literal lifesaver. 

Because the automated processes that were supposed to wake up the initial crew, hadn't. 

Instead, Ellen woke up, coughing her way out of a cyropod in SAM node. 

"What's wrong?" Was the first thing she asked in this new galaxy, because sure as heck something was wrong. 

[The ark appears to have encountered some sort of dark energy. I'm attempting to divert the ship as much as I can during the slowdown, but the automated wakeup systems aren't responding--] 

"Focus on the ship, I'll get Alec." She snapped, hauling herself out of the pod. Everything was spinning, and she was a full ride away from the cyropod bays. "Is the tram working?" 

[Yes.] SAM said. And then he did something and suddenly her nausea vanished, like a remnant of a dream. 

Given another ten years and he wouldn't be able to do that, she'd be too far gone by then, but now he could at least help her manage the symptoms. 

"Thanks." 

SAM went back to focusing on the whole dang ship, and Ellen focused on finding the tram. 

She wished it were faster. 

When she got to the bays…. 

Yeah that was bad. Whatever they had hit seemed to have sent some sort of surge directly into the automated cyropod system. A quick check told her that they were stable, no visible damage, but the wakeup process had been interrupted and…. 

Ellen took a deep breath, scanned Alec's pod again to reassure herself that he hadn't taken on any damage (yet), then turned and set off at a full sprint towards the medical pods. 

Half an hour later she had a bundle of very groggy doctors who were rapidly transforming into very concerned doctors. 

"We'll need to bring them out of it slowly." Lexi said, tapping away at a diagnostic panel. "But otherwise they appear stable. They should be fine." 

"You don't look like you think they'll be fine," Ellen countered, studying Alec's diagnostics on her omnitool. They looked...okay, yeah, he looked okay. Frozen, but okay. Most importantly there wasn't any neural damage or reason to believe that there would be neural damage. 

"The long way could take months," Harry explained from where he was bending over the captain's cyropod. 

"But it's safe?" 

"Yes, we planned for it, just in case," he let out a slightly wry sound. "Alec went over it expecting that you might need it, so you know it's airtight." 

Ellen pulled in a breath, closed her eyes, and then let it out again before letting herself relax a little. "Yeah, he would make sure it was perfect. So how far down the leadership do we need to go here before we get to someone we can actually wake up?" 

"I'm not sure. Cora, for the Pathfinder crew." Lexi said. "Except since there's no SAM transfer--" 

"Yeah, SAM is still linked up with me," Ellen lied. 

Or, well, it wasn't a lie, but...Alec had been supposed to make himself his own SAM. Instead he had just improved and improved their SAM and tested a shared connection. Technically, that connection was still active, which should mean that no matter where she was SAM should be able to check Alec's vitals for her once he was mostly out of cyro. 

She...wasn't actually sure if they could transfer SAM even without that issue. Maybe if they put her back into cyro? Alec had talked about a test SAM for transfer purposes but that hadn't panned out so with Alec out for months they might have to wait that long for him to even consider it. 

Ellen tapped over to the twins' diagnostics. Still frozen, still sleeping. They wouldn't be waking them up until they had somewhere safe for the kids to go. No one was going to wake up children early. 

That had seemed like a simple thing before she'd gone into the pod. Not so much, now. 

The doctors kept glancing at her, waiting for her to make the call. 

"Pull Cora out and the flight crew," She suggested. "I'll figure out what poor schmuck just got promoted to temporary captain of the Hyperion. We need to rendezvous with the Nexus and let them know what's going on. Garson will be able to make the calls from there." 

As long as SAM could keep them from hitting more dark energy as they finished the slow down, it would be fine. They'd navigate over there and Jien would organize things. They had to have a protocol for this. 

* * *

Jien pressed her fingers against her mouth. 

They didn't have a protocol for this. 

Alec had...well he had pulled an Alec. 

With Cora Harper there, shifting nervously besides a preternaturally calm Ellen Ryder, Jien couldn't be too mad about it. The kid was good at what she did--she'd been especially helpful when that bombing had happened--but Jien knew to follow her own instincts and her instincts were telling her that they needed a SAM on this. "This goes a bit against convention"--for all that they had any of that--"but I'd like you to step into the Pathfinder role until Alec is awake and combat ready." 

Ellen frowned. "That could be months until he even wakes up. Even longer before he's field ready." 

"SAM can--" 

"Can only do so much when someone physically isn't capable of something." Ellen interrupted, crossing her arms. "He's a symbiotic helper, not a miracle pill." 

"Alec described him doing some pretty crazy things." 

[While I am capable of a great deal, pushing Commander Ryder to full capability immediately after he awakens from cyro could do significant harm to his physiology.] SAM interjected, voice sounding from Ellen's omnitool. 

They needed to get SAM integrated with the Nexus as soon as possible. He would have to focus on Ellen--Alec hadn't hidden that information from Jien--but there were a lot of calculations that having a supercomputer capable of independent thought would be invaluable for. Namely, actually completing some of the pathing they'd been attempting to work out to find more of the (former) golden worlds. 

"Then Dr. Ryder should remain as Pathfinder until Commander Ryder is ready to take up the title again," Jien said firmly. 

"Isn't that nepotism?" Ellen asked, not looking thrilled. An ill neuroscientist probably wasn't the first choice for this sort of thing usually...but Ellen was a Ryder. Having a Ryder and a SAM as the human Pathfinder would be a good stability point. It would show that they expected that to be temporary, and prevent any questions about why SAM couldn't be transferred to Cora. 

"It's 'your husband put his AI in your head and we need it at the head of things'ism" Sloane drawled from the doorway, before looking at Cora. "Sorry kid." 

Cora gave a tight smile, settling back into the comfort of formality. "The Pathfinder will be awake soon, it makes sense to make the transition as seamless as possible." 

Ellen reached out and squeezed Cora's shoulder. "Or they'll come to their senses and realize that sending a neuroscientist out on recon missions isn't the best move." 

"I know you know how to fight," Jien said. "Alec made it pretty clear." He hadn't, actually, but her hunches were pretty good and she'd be shocked if he hadn't taught his wife how to handle a gun and field maneuvers. She'd be shocked if his _children_ couldn't handle a gun and field maneuvers 

Ellen's eyes narrowed. "What exactly are you fighting?" 

It didn't take too long to explain the alien technology. 

It took significantly longer to persuade Ellen that no she absolutely couldn't not go poke at it. 

Jien wasn't sure why she was surprised, but somehow she was. On the bright side, the lieutenant had settled into the watch the distressingly nerdy show and Ellen was no longer arguing that she shouldn't be Pathfinder. 

"It's the equivalent of first contact!" Ellen argued, eyes wide. "You can't just ignore it! Between SAM and I we should be able to figure out how to access it, maybe communicate if it's sentient!" 

"You are _not_ going to plug our only AI into semi-dormant alien technology." Jien said firmly. 

[I can safely control my interface options when accessing something remotely in the field.] SAM countered, clearly having picked up nerd tendencies from his creator. This one had always been a bit sharper than the others, but being Alec's personal AI she wasn't especially surprised by that. 

"He's not lying. We have pretty good safety measures built in. He won't be downloading anything to his core from the field, only to intermediate drives--and not any that are attached to my person via cybernetics or directly hooked into whatever ship I take." 

"The Tempest," Jien said, deciding to choose her battles by avoiding this one. It wasn't like she could control what Ellen did in the field and the woman had always seemed the type to keep reasonable in the moment, so it might be better to have these arguments then rather than now where they were semi-hypothetical. "I'll need to wake up the crew." 

Ellen sighed and gave her an annoyed look. 

"We need someone with a SAM to lead the Pathfinder crew right now, and you're qualified." Jien repeated firmly, knowing full well what argument they'd transitioned back to. "We can discuss the possibility of dealing with the alien technology once all four arks are docked and we've solved the refueling issue." 

Ellen closed her eyes, sighed, and opened them with a tense smile. "Fine. What do you need us to do?" 

* * *

Sloane looped an arm around Jien's waist as the door closed behind the Hyperion lot, nuzzling at her ear. "Remember how bad you wanted the Ryders to show up?" 

Jien sighed. "We're still better off than we were before." 

"If she brings the robot apocalypse down on our heads, I'm going to remind you of this conversation." 

She sagged against Sloane, stifling her own frustration. "That's fair." 

* * *

Ellen was surprised how fast Cora seemed to adjust; before they were off the Nexus even. After that...it was almost distressing how quickly people were happy to jump to calling Ellen 'the Pathfinder'. At least some of them were openly disappointed, which was comforting. Ellen didn't...she didn't like the idea of her and Alec being interchangeable. They were different people with _vastly_ different skills and ways of handling things. 

They made a good team, and she just had to remember that this was her stepping up as part of that team. Even if she hadn't been intended to even be _on_ this part of the team in the first place. 

She would just have to deal. 

Once the Nexus calmed down a bit they'd probably relent and realize that she could absolutely come out with SAM while also letting Cora step into the temporary Pathfinder role. All it would take was a few wild goose chases where they found nothing due to not having a proper Pathfinder at the helm. She was a neuroscientist, not a recon specialist. 

* * *

Their first trip out, after several days of dead ends, they found Habitat Five. 

Or at least what was left of it. 

"Wow." Sumi said, eyes wide as she leaned forward to look at the debris. The rest of the team was crowded behind Ellen and the cockpit crew, staring out at what had once been a garden world of a moon. 

"It feels like the system is telling us to leave." Ellen mused. "This was the only dextro-protien world, and, well, there it is." 

"No sign of the Turian ark though," David pointed out. 

"Would they stay if they saw this?" Hayes asked. "We didn't stick around Habitat Seven either." 

The fact that the Turian ark should have gone straight for the Nexus afterwards was left unsaid. 

[The radiation levels are high.] SAM reported. [However, scans seem to indicate the presence of helium-3. 

"It's definitely telling us to f--to leave," Liam said with a snort. 

"At least it's helpful about it." Ellen said mildly. "Anything else we need to report, SAM?" 

She could all but feel him hesitate. 

[...There appears to be a large xenotechnological structure on the remaining surface, near the most logical helium-3 mining point.] 

The whole cockpit seemed to pause, the silence lingering. 

Harry broke it with a sigh. "What are the radiation readings?" 

[Unacceptable for human conditions. However, the xenotechnology is covered by a dome which appears to be warding off the radiation. Further measurements could be taken at a closer vantage.] 

Ellen considered how upset Alec was likely to be with her if she exposed herself to more 'probably safe' radiation, and weighed that against the almost zero chance of SAM exposing her if he thought there was a danger. 

"Let's do it." 

* * *

"Well," Ellen said as the holo spun into view. "We found Habitat Five." 

"Let me guess, it's f-- not habitable?" Jien barely caught the curse before she said it. 

She had been spending _far_ too much time around Sloane Kelly. 

Ellen bit back a smile, probably having seen entirely through Jien's near slip. "It's in pieces and highly radioactive. _However_ , we did some scans and if the mining works out, it should solve our fuel issues." 

Jien let out a relieved sound, sitting back rather suddenly. "Five days with a Pathfinder and you find exactly what we need." 

"You're the one who sent me after the turian planet." Ellen pointed out. "Your other crews probably would have found it sooner or later, SAM isn't magic." 

"Some things just need a certain sort of luck," Jien said. She was already editing the announcement in her head. They'd need to check the reports first, and send a backup recon and mining team to check it out before they told the rest of the station, but if Ellen was right and it would "solve their fuel issues"…. 

That would be one problem very taken care of. 

Jien was willing to bet that she was right. Ellen Ryder wasn't the type to exaggerate. If anything she would err on the side of understatement. 

"Given that," Ellen continued. "I want to check out that technology on Habitat One." 

Jien weighed her arguments, settling on the one that seemed the strongest. "You probably won't be able to access it. Sloane said--" 

"That's nice. I can access it though." 

Jien sighed. "How can you be sure?" 

"Because SAM and I figured out how to activate a xenotech tiller here, which is a large part of why we'll be able to mine so much helium-3" Ellen shrugged at her. "It's some sort of terraforming tech, maybe before the Scourge appeared they were trying to colonize the system themselves? It could explain some things." 

That was...that was a lot of information that they didn't have before. 

Jien didn't want to send their only SAM and Pathfinder at the only hostiles they'd encountered. Even if the VI hadn't seemed too dangerous so far all it took was one mistake...But terraforming technology would be invaluable and since Ellen had accessed it without her permission the first time she got the chance anyways there was a good chance she'd just go and do it with or without permission. Better to at least be informed. "The technology could be different, do you think you can access it?" 

"I know I can," Ellen answered confidently. 

Jien sighed, closed her eyes, then snapped them back open. "Fine." 

Ellen raised an eyebrow. "That easily?" 

"We need time to set up for mining. I'm assuming you aren't leaving without looking for every sign of the Natanus, so if you're ever going to go mess with strange alien technology now is the best time we're going to get." 

Ellen gave her a wry look. "Alec really did a number on your expectations of Pathfinder attention span, didn't he." 

"He was incredibly focused on his goal. His goal was always my goal, which suited me, but I knew that if he ever got distracted I would need to get out of the way and figure out a way to get him to the end of the alternative goal or to distract him back to my goal as fast as possible." 

Ellen rolled her eyes. "He's never that bad. He's usually doing several things at once." 

Jien raised an eyebrow. "So are you saying that you _won't_ go diving into strange alien technology and will stick to recon?" 

"Oh absolutely not, I'm far worse than Alec as far as scientific curiosity goes. He's at least capable of following orders." 

"He got discharged from the military for building an AI." 

"I said capable, not always inclined." 

* * *

Jien got Ellen to come back to the Nexus before they announced the helium-3 findings--it got everyone worked up as stories from the Tempest spread and then solidified when Jien made the announcement, and gave more of a vision of cohesion--and then she was off again. 

They had gotten her to stay around for slightly longer with the excuse of adding one more crew member, but the xenotech expert she'd pulled out of cyro (an asari maiden whose psych profiles showed she had been almost _too_ focused on the prospect of finding xenotech in what they had hoped was a never-inhabited system) had been bounding to go from the moment she opened her eyes so it hadn't bought much time. 

Jien was fairly sure that she should have predicted that Ellen would be somehow _worse_ than her husband about all of this. After all, the woman who could keep Alec Ryder in line had to be. 

* * *

Habitat One was, somehow, inhabited. 

Or something like it. The point was that there were other aliens here-- _living ones_ , right under their noses, and nobody had even noticed until Ellen Ryder had barely avoided running into them. The Pathfinder crew had, thankfully, withdrawn from the planet rather than risked a fight with what appeared to be a military installation to finish activating the xenotechnological pillars. As far as SAM could tell they hadn't been detected by the heavily armed unknown aliens. 

" _Pathfinders_." Sloane said, frustrated. "It's something in their water." 

"Or the AI in their heads. Still don't fancy one for yourself?" 

"Alec never offered." Sloane let her head hit the table with a thunk. "I'm readjusting your security. No complaining." 

"We don't even know if they were hostile and we're fairly certain they don't know we exist. Ellen backed out instead of forcing contact." 

"It was a military installation. I'm not taking any chances." 

"I'm safe on the Nexus." 

Sloane tilted her head to glare at Jien, not picking her head up from the table. "You're safe because _I keep you safe_. Stop complaining. I'm upping security." 

Jien considered her battles, and then gave in. "Fine." She smirked slightly. "If you want to guard me at night you know where to find me." 

Sloane just laughed. 

She did show up though, later that night. 

* * *

Ellen was exhausted. 

It was nothing new. Even with SAM, all this running around probably wasn't great for her. Even without AEND slowing her up, since SAM mostly took care of that for now, she was a _neuroscientist_ not a soldier. 

If Alec found out that she had insisted on going to a whole radioactive planet just to get a look at some alien technology…after having gone onto an even more radioactive moon to look at that same alien technology...all of which she was activating with her own biotics and SAM…. 

Well, he'd just have to deal with it because he was absolutely going to find out. 

The point was, she was exhausted, and she was rapidly regretting her decision to continue after the alien tech onto Habitat Two. The heat of this planet was oppressive, and even SAM couldn't stop it from slowing her down. She had been tempted more than once to just throw in the towel while they activated the pillars and dodged giant VI worms. On the bright side, she hadn't seen any signs of the aliens here. 

It was very tempting to try to make first contact, somehow, but showing up to someone's military base seemed like a bad way to do it. It would still be a shame if they left the system without ever trying. 

It was a worry for another day, she decided as they watched the vault entrance unearth itself from the sand. Now they just had to worry about the vault. 

Five minutes later she had come to the conclusion that whatever this place was, it was breathtaking. 

It was also full of things that were shooting at her. 

* * *

Ellen wasn't certain exactly what she was expecting to find at the center of the vault. They were hoping that it would be...something. It seemed to be terraforming tech, which would be incredible if they could learn from it. If there was a central computer to this place maybe there would be schematics. Or some sort of data. Maybe even a way to communicate with the aliens they had been avoiding. 

The data that SAM had accessed was massive in scope, it couldn't possibly be all gibberish. 

A map hadn't been on her list of things to expect to see. 

"It's a planetary map," She said after a moment. The rest of the team fanned out, staring up at it with her. 

"It might be other vaults," Peebee said breathlessly. 

"Do you think one of them is habitable?" Cora asked. 

"It's probably inhabited by the people we encountered on Habitat One," Kirkland pointed out. "I don't know if they'll appreciate us showing up." 

"Considering everything, I'm pretty sure we're set on the path to leave," Ellen said. "The Nexus crew are all geared up for it. It _might_ lead us to one of the other arks, if they made it to the planet they were supposed to." 

"If they didn't run into trouble." 

"The Turians _definitely_ didn't make it to theirs." 

Ellen sighed. "SAM, download the map and as much other data as you can. We'll deal with it later." 

[Done.] SAM said, probably having dealt with it before she'd even said anything. [Should we transfer the coordinates back to the Nexus?] 

Ellen knew full well what he was asking. Did they send them to Jien, who likely wouldn't want them to keep poking around on planets at the risk of starting up conflict with an alien species and who might send another group to check the known coordinates while sending the Pathfinder out to find arks based on luck...or did they check it out themselves. 

"We'll deal with it later," She decided. Then she reached out for the panel. In theory, this should be the big reset button for this whole system. It was getting pretty comfortable, actually, to interface with this tech. It had been unnerving at first, especially without knowing how her particular system would react to encountering technology on this intimate of a level, but more and more it was feeling like a good idea. 

* * *

The giant cloud of nanobots that appeared when she hit the button were a pretty good argument that it was not, in fact, a good idea. 

* * *

Running out of an alien structure while trying to keep track of a whole team was _officially_ her least favorite thing. How the heck did Alec manage this sort of thing without dying of stress! When he woke up--well, she was going to dump this all right back on him, was what she was going to do! They were lucky they got back up to the surface safely. If the nanobots had followed them up the lift…. 

Better not to think about it. 

[Several small craft of unknown provenance have appeared nearby] SAM cautioned as they approached the door out. [They appear to be watching the entrance] 

"How far out?" Ellen resisted the urge to curse under her breath. Everything had seemed so easy since getting to Habitat 2. She really should have known better. Even finding it had been easy since it hadn't been luck but rather one of Jien's people had figured out the coordinates, they hadn't even had to look very hard for the alien technology once they were there, either. 

So of course that meant it was time for first contact with a potentially hostile alien species. 

[Several are taking shelter up in the rocks across from the vault entrance, one group appears to be on the dunes behind the vault.] 

"Flanking, then. Same weapons as before?" 

[Unknown. It appears to be a different species.] 

Ellen sighed. 

She was really tired. She was tired and really not thrilled about being thrown into a first contact situation with no preparation and no guarantee of retreat. First contact had a habit of going...badly. 

Alec better wake up soon so she could actually take a rest, and if anyone pointed out that Ellen was only out on this mission because she wanted to be, she was going to get mad. It _was_ essential, even if Jien seemed to think it was a fieldtrip. 

"Get ready to hopefully make some friends and probably make some enemies," she told the rest of them. 

"Pathfinder?" 

"I'm going to open the doors and go up to say 'Hi'. You four flank the doors. Get ready to run. SAM have they moved the car?" 

[They have not.] 

"It's right up the slope then. I'm going to walk to it and we'll decide what to do from there. SAM unlock it when I'm in range. Be ready to run for it on my signal if needed. Otherwise I'll try to back it down the slope so you two can get in more safely." 

"What if they start shooting at you before you pass the car?" 

"Then I'll boost my shields and get into it." Ellen gestured at the edges of the door, hand hovering over the spot to open it without opening it yet. 

Both of the kids moved to where she told them...which just left going out to say high. 

The door slid open easily at her touch, and she resisted the urge to close it behind her. If she got shot through her shields the others needed to be able to get out, and none of them could access this technology. 

She braced for the heat as she moved further up the slope, ready to count the seconds that it was safe as the temperature rose...and stopped. "SAM has the temperature changed?" 

[Ambient temperature is currently 4.5 degrees celcius lower. The activated device appears to be affecting nearby temperatures.] 

"It _was_ a terraformer then, I knew it." 

"Uh, ma'am?" Liam called out. 

"They aren't shooting yet." Ellen eyed the hints she could see behind the above rocks of someone taking cover. Different gear than the ones from before, though for all she knew those ones were friendly and these were the baddies. Or maybe they were all friendly. Or all aggressive. Or just wanted the strange aliens to get off their lawn. 

If she left now, they might not get another chance for non-violent first contact. 

"I'm going to go say 'Hi'." 

* * *

Jien had assumed she was fairly well prepared for whatever Ellen Ryder might say when she finally called in a mission report. 

She shouldn't have assumed. 

"Would you like the good news or the news that's good but going to make you want to tear your hair out?" Ellen asked cheerfully. 

Jien closed her eyes and sighed. 

"Hair tearing it is. We made first contact. Not with the same people from Habitat One. Different set." 

Jien pressed her hands hard onto the table, blood pounding in her ears. 

First contact. With--so there were at least two other species in this system that they hadn't encountered in the eighteen months they'd been here before the Hyperion had shown up. 

"We also found a map!" Ellen continued cheerfully. "It should be pretty useful." 

"That's nice. I need to wake up some diplomats." She had been planning to, after the first reports of aliens. She had hesitated for the same reason she always hesitated, because the more people that were awake the harder it was to relaunch and the more chances there were she would wake up one of the Benefactor's people, but now that Ellen Ryder had made actual first contact it was essential. 

They were lucky that it had been a Pathfinder to make first contact. Those situations could go badly very easily. Sloane's surge of over-protectiveness was going to be bad enough as it was. It would have been...well, not unbearable, but it would have gone far further than necessary if it things had turned into a fight. 

"That would probably be wise. I don't think the Angara are too pleased about us being here but they were also pretty thrilled about me turning on that planetary terraforming device--" 

"What?" 

"I did tell you that I thought it was all terraforming based. It is." 

"I didn't expect you to turn on a planetary terraforming device," Jien said. She gathered herself, considering what was most important. "Send me any contact information and copies of your conversation with the...Angara? We'll need that immediately. As well as any data from the xenotech. Then get back to the Nexus. We'll debrief properly then we can focus on this while you look for the arks." 

She doubted that's how it would actually play out...but at least getting a Pathfinder had made their former slow slog turn into a rapid stream of things happening. 


End file.
